>> Monday, October 10, 2016

EDITORIAL

Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin M.
Drilon on Tuesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to grant a P3,000
additional allowance to about 1.3 million civilian employees – including public
nurses and teachers – following the recent increase in the combat duty pay and
combat incentive pay for soldiers and policemen.

Drilon urged the
President to extend his generosity that he showered on uniformed men and women
to equally deserving and dedicated civilian personnel.

“It is only timely
and proper that we provide relief to civilian employees, whose purchasing power
has eroded through the years, by way of an additional allowance of P3,000 per
month,” Drilon said.

Under the Executive
Order No. 3, the combat duty pay of the officers and enlisted personnel of the
AFP and uniformed personnel of the PNP is fixed at P3,000 per month from the
previous rate of P500 per month for the enlisted personnel of the AFP and the
P340 per month for the uniformed policemen.

The President also
granted an increase in the combat incentive pay of the members of the AFP and
the uniformed personnel of the PNP who figure directly in actual combat against
members of various insurgent, terrorist and lawless elements, shall be entitled
to additional Combat Incentive Pay of Three Hundred Pesos (P300.00) per day.

The budget for these
increases amount to about P4.06 billion from September to December of this year
and P12.2 billion for 2017.

The senator said that
he agreed with the President that “there is an urgent need to increase the said
benefits to improve the living conditions of the men in uniform.”

But Drilon said such
is also true with the civilian employees “who are having a hard time to cope
with the rising cost of living.” The senator said the additional
allowance shall be given on top of the mandatory allowance currently received
by all government employees, referring to the Personnel economic Relief
Allowance (PERA) that amounts to P2,500 per month.

From September
to December, Drilon estimated the budgetary requirement at approximately P15.73
billion, saying that “the amount can be sourced from the Miscellaneous
Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF).”

Annually, it
will only cost additional P47 billion in government coffers, which can be
lodged under the MPBF or in the agencies’ respective budgets, according to Drilon.

Drilon said that if
the President grants this proposal, Congress can include the amounts necessary
for the grant of additional allowances to both the uniformed and civilian
employees in the 2017 national budget.